Concerns raised over illegal livestock burials

by
5m Editor

14 March 2005, at 12:00am

UK - Scotland’s livestock seem to have become much healthier in the past few months. Unfortunately, that has less to do with the Executive’s attempts to make animal health and welfare a priority and more to do with the introduction of the National Fallen Stock Scheme.
This scheme was introduced late last autumn, after a series of delays, to help farmers comply with European Union groundwater and pollution rules that ban on-farm burial of animals that die from disease or accident. There are other options - approved incineration systems, collection by other approved methods - but the fallen stock scheme with an annual subscription and pay-as-you-go per corpse should be the most widely used.
However, several of the knackery operators which tendered for contracts with the national company and expected to be busy have reported that business is remarkably slow. So much so that it seems increasingly probable that thousands of dead sheep are still being buried on farms in the traditional way.
The difference is that except in areas given an exemption, such as most of the Highlands and Islands, farmers are now breaking a law which took effect last September. Chris Murphy, of Douglas Brae knackery in Keith, probably the largest collection service in Scotland, is convinced that the ban is being flouted regularly.
<i>Source: The Scotsman</i>